Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1887-01-27
WHEN NIAGARA WAS DRY.
A Remarkable Day, Forty Years Ago. IN
the History OF the Great Cataract.

the history OF the Great Cataract.
'sThirty-nine years ago next spring."
said an old resident of this village. "a
sight was witnessed at the falls of Mag
ara that had never been seen before, at
least by people then on earth, and in all
probability such sight viii never be wit
messed again. 1t was nothing more nor
less than the running dry of the great
cataract, or at least so nearly dry that it
is no exaggeration to call it so, in which
condition the falls remained for one whole
day.
1.-The winter of 1S4S had been one of
the coolest on record, and such ice has
never been known on Lake Erie since, /
guess, as formed that season. It was of
enormous thickness. 1t was quite late in
the spring before the ice was loosened,
even about the shores of the lake. One
day think it was near the end of
April--a very stiff northeasterly wind
came up, and its force was so great that
it moved the great fields of ice, then en-
tirely separated from the shores, up the
lake, piling the foes in great banks as
they moved. The sight of those ice
banks is described yet by those who wit
messed it as one of most awful grandeur.
Toward night the wind changed suddenly
to the opposite quarter, and grew into a
terrible gale from that direction. The
lakes surface was packed with minia-
ture icebergs, and these were hurled back
by the gale with such tremendous force
that an impenetrable dam was formed in
the neck of the lake from which Niagara
river flows, and the great current of
water which finds its way from the lake
in the rushing channel of that stream, to
be dashed over the gigantic precipice at
the falls, was so held in check that not
more than one-quarter Of its usual vol
ume could find passage through the
immense pack of ice.
As this pack was stubborn, it was
naturally but very short time before
the falls had drained nearly all the water
out of the river. This, of course, oc-
CURED during the night, and we people
who lived In Niagara village knew moth
ing of the phenomena until next morn
ing. remember that / awoke very
early that morning, with the sense of
something exceedingly strange expressing
me. 1t was some time before / discov-
cred that the feeling came from the fact
that the noise of the cataract was almost
Il
leaving the house found that scores of
others had been awakened by the same
circumstance, and were hurrying toward
the falls to see what the trouble was.
We found that the great Niagara falls
was only about one-quarter of its former
volume.
1--WE had not heard of the trouble at
Lake Erie, and the terrible thought that
the falls were running dry created feel
ing of alarm not easily imaginable. Tho
American channel had dwindled to a
creek in comparison with its original pro-
portions, while the British channel re-
sembled some ordinary river in the
droughts of August. Goat island was as
big as two Goat islands, as the water had
shrunk from every side of it, leaving
wide expanse of wet, shiny jagged rocks
which no eye in that vicinity had ever
seen before. The bed Of the Canadian
rapids, far out into the stream, was dry,
as was the space between the lower end
of Goat island, and out beyond the
tower. The rocks thus exposed were
black and forbidding, giving the dry
river bed the appearance Of a tract of
charred stumps. The Three Sisters
sions. The great Jet of water which had
from time out of mind leaped into the air
about 800 yards south of this group of
islands in the great rapids, and which is
leaping there to-day, was not leaping
that morning, and, as some one re-
marked that day, the tremendous roar of
Niagara had subsided to moan.
1.-The scene was at once desolate,
strange and awful to contemplate. The
picture will never leave my mind. The
whole village was out exploring caves,
dark recesses, curious formations in the
rocks and other remarkable features of
the cataract and rapids that no mortal
eye had probably ever gazed upon before.
These explorations were made safely to
the very brink Of the Horseshoe rapids.
A Dir. HolIey drove a horse and buggy
from the head of Goat island clear to the
spot where the leaping Jet Of water had
always writhed and foamed. He also
cut several sticks Of timber near the brink
Of Horseshoe falls, had them hewed there
and hauled them away with four horses.
These sticks-they were large, fine tim
bers-are in the frame Of some house at
the falls now This remarkable condi-
tiOn of affairs at the cataract continued
al day, and showed no signs Of change
when the people went to bed that night.
When we arose IN the morning, however,
the old familiar thunder Of the falls was
again shaking the earth as before, and
the. river and rapids were again the
seething, whirling, irresistible torrent Of
old. The ice. IN the lake had shifted
again, and some time in the night the
long restrained volume of water had
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